


His Aviary

by Ramabear (RyMagnatar)



Series: Daily Dose: Hibari Edition [1]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: 1827, Gen, Hibari has feelings, Teenagers, Tsuna avoids bullies, preslash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-18
Updated: 2016-05-18
Packaged: 2018-06-09 04:37:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6890512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RyMagnatar/pseuds/Ramabear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Searching for an escape from his bullies, Tsuna discovers a school storage room that doesn't hold books, supplies or anything academic related at all. Unwittingly, he stumbles in upon Hibari's private aviary, a sanctuary for all he little canaries he's procured. </p><p>Unfortunately, his visits do not go unnoticed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	His Aviary

It was his final year of middle school and still,  _ still,  _ Tsuna was looking for new hiding places to get away from his tormentors at school. All the stereotypical places, you know the ones used in manga or in TV shows, were either scoped out by other, slightly more fortunate students (for Tsuna knew as well as everyone else that he was the Least Fortunate one), were actually the places where bullies themselves hung out, or was the roof- and therefore Completely Off Limits. 

(Hibari-san might have technically aged out of Nami-middle the year before, but that didn’t stop him from showing up at the school whenever he wanted to. Which was every day. At lunch. On the roof.)

The worst of it- the  _ worst part-  _ was that he had to keep finding  _ new  _ places to hide. 

As if his bullies couldn’t just let him find some little corner to eat his stupid lunch in peace for two days in a row without discovering him and tormenting him. 

Was it too much to ask to have one week where he got to eat his lunch without being so much as looked at? Really? At this point he would settle for being completely ignored- at least then he wouldn’t have to work gum out of his hair or have to see his handmade lunch get thrown over a fence. 

This desire was what lead him searching the classrooms up at the top floor. While many were still in daily use, there were half a dozen storage rooms. Unfortunately, the former had students a plenty and the latter were all behind locked doors.

Still, it never hurt to try a door, just in case.

So Tsuna trotted down the hallway, reaching out to each passing door to try and pull it open.

A room at the corner was unlocked. The door swung open noiselessly to reveal a very noisy inside. 

For a solid minute, Tsuna stood in the doorway and stared into a room that belonged in a zoo- not a middle school. 

There were half a dozen tree stands and two large bowls filled with pebbles and a shallow layer of water. The floor was papered over, to minimize damage to the tile beneath and there were multiple feeders hanging from the ceiling. The large window was wide open, letting in sunlight and a gentle breeze. A small ventilator in the corner processed the air within the room itself, negating much of the smell. 

All of these things supported the small flock of tiny yellow (well most of them were yellow) birds.  _ Canaries,  _ his brain said distantly.

It took him only a moment to step into the room and shut the door behind himself. He knew one thing for certain- if he got shit on him in this room, it wasn’t done it on purpose. 

In his haste to find a luncheon spot away from anyone else, Tsuna completely missed the sign on the door. To be fair, it was small and printed on white paper, looking more like a simple school flyer than a notice. 

_ [Do Not Enter.] _

_ [This room is for the express use of the Disciplinary Committee only.] _

* * *

Someone was visiting the aviary.

Kyoya himself visited every afternoon after his noon nap, to eat and sit with the birds before going out on patrol. He couldn’t tell when exactly the visitor was arriving, but after a few days the details began piling up. 

More birds than usual on his initial arrival. The newspaper on the floor replaced in various spots. Other parts where an edge has been toyed with, rolled up between fingers not shredded with beak. Once, part of a wrapper that had somehow found its way behind a stand. Another time a mirror found propped up, the birds chirping at it curiously. 

Yes. Someone was visiting his aviary. 

That was not to be tolerated.

* * *

Tsuna slipped into the bird room with a smile already on his lips. After two weeks of coming day after day, some of the more friendly birds had taken to him. A golden brown one he called Hawk more for its coloration than anything, flit down and landed on his head. It chirped out a song to him -part of the Namimori song in fact- and he reached up to run his finger over a feathery breast. Hawk went from his hair to his finger and allowed him to carry him down to eye level.

“Hey,” He said gently. “Nice to see you too.”

Relaxing even more, Tsuna walked to his usual spot under the window where the light was the best and he could see the shadows of the birds flying in and out. He stepped over someone’s leg on his way to the window, but it wasn’t until he’d actually turned around and sat that he realized  _ that he had stepped over someone’s leg.  _

Tsuna jerked so violently that the birds settling on his head fluttered their wings and chirped restlessly. He clutched his lunch to his chest, staring, wide eyed at the prone form of none other than Hibari Kyoya. 

_ Oh,  _ he thought as he met Hibari’s gaze,  _ this is how I’m going to die.  _

Slowly, Hibari sat up. Tsuna swallowed hard. Even with half a dozen birds on his arms and shoulders, Hibari was terrifying. Tsuna’s grip tightened until his knuckles were white. He felt hot- embarrassed for being caught here, shamed that his eyes were tearing up, angry that  _ this  _ was going to be taken from him  _ too.  _ He felt cold- afraid, so afraid, that he was going to end up in the hospital, resigned because of course he was going to be bitten to death and have to find yet another spot to try and get some peace, and heartbroken. 

He was really going to miss the birds.

Worst of all were the tears definitely, absolutely, gathering in his eyes and blurring his vision. He squeezed his eyes shut and ducked his head but didn’t otherwise move.

Two weeks. Two weeks of the best lunches in all of middle school and now it was over. 

At least, when he started crying, he would be able to blame it on the pain of being beaten up. No one could blame him for that, too.

* * *

Kyoya eyed the frozen herbivore for several long minutes. Upon entering the room, they had completely missed his presence, though he had positioned himself in such a way that you could not look into the room without seeing him. From that spot, he had seen several birds swoop to greet the boy, one in particular landing on his head and being greeted in return.

The smile he had given the bird was tiny and fragile, like the rachis of a feather. Press just a little too hard and it would snap it right in half, rendering the whole thing useless. 

Apparently, discovering and recognizing Kyoya’s presence was just enough pressure to do just that. He sat up, considering what kind of threat would work best on communicating to the herbivore just how distasteful his presence was in the aviary, and the boy shut down. His expression was completely resigned, even with his eyes shut tightly, and Kyoya was startled to notice how white his knuckles are, how hunched his shoulders, how his teeth bit hard into his bottom lip. 

The lighting was a little difficult to be sure, but Kyoya thought he saw  _ tears  _ running down his cheeks as well. 

Kyoya considered this. For the first time, he wondered what, exactly, would make an herbivore walk into his territory day after day and he comes up with an option that is surprising simply because it sounds not only plausible but  _ accurate.  _ And it is not a pretty reason at all. 

Slowly, he rose to his feet. The boy flinched from head to toe. His anxiety was so obvious that the birds around him were becoming distressed. Kyoya would have none of that. 

“Avoiding the herd?” he asked, standing in front of the boy. 

He didn’t say a thing, only nodded and hunched further on himself. Before Kyoya’s very eyes, the boy did all he could to become small and invisible. 

“Do not distress the birds.” He reaches up. The boy flinches, even though his eyes are closed, as though he can feel where Kyoya is without having to look. 

He plucks a feather out of spiky brown hair and spins it in his fingertips. His continued silence is the key to making the boy open watery eyes. He looks at the feather and then up at Kyoya. “...yes senpai.”

Satisfied, Kyoya turns away. Napping in the aviary is difficult to do. The sunlight isn’t the best and the birds like to nibble at his ear and nose. He walks out of the room, glancing over his shoulder only once to see the boy, whose hands shake, reaching into his pocket and whispering something to the golden brown bird on his shoulder. He lingers long enough to see the herbivore pull out seeds for that bird and give it another one of those fragile little smile.

Then he is gone, walking down the hall and towards the roof and steadfastly ignoring the way he felt his heart lurch just a little bit. The boy looked  _ silly  _ with all the birds clustering his hair and his shoulders.  _ Just. Silly.  _

Herbivores were  _ not  _ adorable. 


End file.
